Alert! Incompatible Processor Detected. System Halted

***gyro***

This is the message that I am getting on my Dell GX280 mini tower. I had my motherboard go out and replaced it with another with the same part #. The new board will run with a 2.8 G CPU but not with the original 3.6 G CPU. I have tried everything that I can think of and it is still not working.

I have done the following:

1. Rest the CMOS many times.
2. Changed the service tag & express service code to match the original.
3. Tried the most recent BIOS ver 07.
4. Tried the original BIOS for this machine, ver 03.
5. Tried ver 04 BIOS.

The USB went out on the original motherboard. The 3.6 G CPU will run on the original motherboard OK. Like I said the machine runs good and passes all Dell diagnostics OK with the 2.8 G CPU but will not boot with the 3.6 G CPU. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.

***gyro*** · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:52 am Post subject: Update

I got this machine running. After looking all over the internet, I found a posting on a diferent model Dell with the same problem. So here is where I am at now. I did the following:

1. Put the 2.8 G CPU in and got the machine up.
2. Loaded the ver 00 BIOS.
3. Cleared the CMOS.
4. Removed the 2.8 G CPU and installed the 3.6 G CPU.
5. Booted the machine up.

Here is the outcome:

1. The machine is running at 2.8 G.
2. The bios reports the CPU as 3.6 G.
3. XP reports the CPU as 3.6 G but running at 2.8 G.

This will get me by for now. I am behind on my work because of this and need to crank out some drawings before I can fiddle with this again.